A memory for our homesteading scrapbook ...

Steve told me I needed to save this for our family scrapbook, so I thought I'd share it here, as well.  We had trouble with the toilet here at the farmhouse the last two years.  It was overflowing fairly often, and we took wet towels home from more than one trip.  Our worst time was during one of my family's visits.  When they were coming here to spend Christmas with us at the farmhouse, I was trying to figure out how to warn them about the toilet and lay down some rules w/o embarrassing us all.

This is what I came up with:

This is our friend, Loo.
Loo is a little tempermental.
He gets upset easily, and then his "anger" overflows.
Here are some tips to keep Loo happy:

1. Do be sure the water stops running after you flush.


2. Don't flush personal items.


3. Do flush in stages if you have to use a lot of toilet paper, instead of waiting until the end to flush it all at once.


4. Do alert April if you see any signs that his anger is rising.  Hopefully she can calm Loo down before it all overflows.

Thank you for working with us to keep our Temperamental Loo happy.  After all, he is our friend.  Without him, we'd have to get to know our other friend, "Mother Nature", a whole lot better.

                                                                               The Management

I posted it on our bathroom wall, and it brought laughter instead of embarrassment.  The message was relayed, and problems were avoided. 

We had a plumber out last month, before we moved in.  He said the septic wasn't the problem, and neither was the toilet.  Someone, at some point trying to save water, had turned down how much water flowed into the toilet.  Without enough water in the tank, the toilet had troubles flushing properly.  It also seems to plug easily, as it has a small outlet.

We've only had one overflow since the plumber came.  Our 3 yo potty training boy made a big ball of toilet paper and threw that into the toilet before he flushed.  We had to talk about how much toilet paper was appropriate to use, and that we do not ball it all up.

I will put this notice into our family scrapbook.  Or maybe I'll put a copy of it in the scrapbook, and frame a copy to hang in the bathroom.  It's still good advice, even if we replace old Loo.   Or maybe I'll re-write it to include tips about not wasting water, as well.

But I thought I'd share one of our "early homesteading memories" as we began this adventure.

Blessings, April